Silver and Gold
by Kurohane Ookami
Summary: When a sparkling femme crash lands on Earth, wounded and alone, the Autobots recieve a strange transmission signal from somewhere in the Sahara desert. However, this little femmling is more than meets the eye. She's already been through a war, losing everything. Slight AU, M for violence and theme.
1. Chapter 1

**. **chapter one **.**

**-:-**

_Just one more moment, that's all that's needed_

_Like wounded soldiers, in need of healing_

_Time to be honest, this time I'm pleading_

_Please don't dwell on it, cause I didn't mean it. _

**-:-**

_I'm scared. Where's daniluk? _

_I can feel something tugging at my spark- it's warm, comforting, encouraging me to slip into recharge. I don't want to recharge. I want daniluk. Where is she?_

_Curious, I poke at the pod surrounding me. What's happening? Why am I trapped in here? _

_The warmth in my spark is more insistent, almost shoving me into recharge. I protest with a weak chirrup, trying to find some way out of here. I don't like it. I want daniluk's sparkling chamber. I want to hear her spark, not this emptiness that echoes around me. _

_Nervously, I chitter quietly to myself, feeling instinctively that something is very wrong. _

_Suddenly, there is a ripping sensation that tears through my spark with all of the speed of a glitch-mouse, drowning me in pain. It hurts. _

_Everything fades. I hear shrill screeching. It's me. _

_Frantically, I reach out to daniluk, instinctively seeking comfort._

_But there is nothing there. Daniluk's bond disappeared. Fear floods through me. Where is daniluk? Why can't I feel my daniluk anymore? Whimpering, I curl, a weak defense to try and ward off the pain. It hurts a lot, mostly in my spark, but also in my processor. Why does my processor hurt? _

_The pod I'm in shudders, and I squeal in alarm as sudden pressure pushes down on me. Venting is hard. Panic reappears, and I tremble, barely able to squeak as the pain is back, coming through my spark again._

_I want it to stop. It hurts. I want daniluk to hold me in her sparkling chamber and let me listen to her spark. _

_Recharge scares me. I don't want to recharge until I'm in daniluk's sparkling chamber. But why isn't daniluk answering? I'm scared. Daniluk always answers. _

_Heat. Uncomfortable at first, but getting warmer as sudden shaking hits again. How long have I been in here? I want out. _

_The heat is beginning to hurt more than the pain in my spark. _

_I whimper, curling tighter in an attempt to make it hurt less. But it just keeps getting warmer. Squeaking, I try to reach out to daniluk again, only to meet the pain again. It hurts so much, and it's getting worse. _

_In a sudden rocking explosion, I'm launched against the wall of the pod, hard. More pain floods my processor, but I can't control it like daniluk can. Silence surrounds me, and I hurt everywhere. I force myself to relax, reassuring myself that daniluk will come and get me soon, wherever I am. The thought is comforting, and recharge suddenly seems like a very good idea. _

_Venting softly, I curl as tightly as I can before forcing myself into recharge, hoping that when I wake I'll be safe in daniluk's sparkling chamber. _


	2. Chapter 2

**. **chapter two **.**

**-:-**

_Bring me home in a blinding dream_

_Through the secrets that I have seen_

_Wash the sorrow from off my skin_

_And show me how to be whole again._

**-:-**

He was hopelessly lost. Of that, he was certain.

Growling various profanities, he scoured the unforgiving landscape, seeking out anything that could be labeled as life.

This was fragging glitched. How was he supposed to know that there were maps on the World Wide Web?

He'd crashed landed somwhere in a place by the name of Italy. Not long after, he found himself a suitable alt-form and continued on South, hoping to run into any signs of Autobots.

Unfortunately, luck wasn't on his side. He'd not only gotten himself lost, but had also not found a single sign of Autobot activity.

"I am beginning to wonder where I have landed." the mech frowned, blue optics narrowing. From what he understood, this planet was host to an organic species that was in no way appealing or large. They were quite fragile, too.

According to his many sensors and maps, he had somehow ended up in the Sahara Desert. How was a whole other question that he didn't particularly want to spend time on figuring out.

Lost in thought, Mirage didn't even see the pod laying in the sand until he literally tripped over it, sending his sleek red form hurtling face first into sand. Which was another unpleasant trait of this planet, now that he thought about it.

Shaking his helm to rid himself of the thought, he turned to examine the object that he had had the misfortune to trip over.

However, his optics widened as he realized that it was an escape pod, usually used by refugee camps in time of need.

Carefully, he shifted, hovering over the pod hesitantly.

It had not had a good landing, or flight for that matter. It had melted the outer layer of the pod that was designed to keep the Cybertronian within safe from harm. It was also missing a couple of pieces from the visible fram that had been exposed.

Gently, he pried open the doorway, which looked as though it had been welded shut, and nearly glitched right then and there.

The remains of a Sparkling lay within. Its optics were dim, its frame partially melted, and he could see part of the chassis from severe burns. Dried energon coated its back, from which two mangled doorwings hung limply.

He scanned it briefly, sensors unable to pick up anything to due to being partially damaged during his own landing.

He vented softly, looking mournfully at the tiny frame, regretting the loss of the Sparkling.

A low whimpering shirp suddenly emitted from its beaten and bedraggled form.

Mirage gaped. Impossible. The statistics of a Sparkling surviving a fall like the one he'd endured were slim to none, perhaps even less.

But here, right in front of his optics, the Sparkling stirred, optics onlining faintly.

Mirage remained still for only a moment before he flew into action, bringing out his emergency first-aid kit from his sub-space and grabbing the tools he would need to keep this Sparkling online until help could arrive. At the same time, he desperately threw out a plea in a signal firmly tuned to the Autobots alone.

_**.: Autobot Mirage asking for immediate medical backup to these co-ordinates. Requesting Chief Medical Officer Ratchet to come immediately. If anybot can hear me, please. Repeat, Autobot Mirage asking for immediate medical backup to these co-ordinates. :.**_

**-:-**

Ratchet listened to the transmission that Optimus Prime was sending out to any Autobots that were out in the universe when his systems alerted him to a rather odd transmission signal that was being recieved.

Frowning, he shuttered his optics, allowing the transmission to play in his audio receptors.

_**.: Autobot Mirage asking for immediate medical backup to these co-ordinates. Requesting Chief Medical Officer Ratchet to come immediately. If anybot can hear me, please. Repeat, Autobot Mirage asking for immediate medical backup to these co-ordinates. :.**_

Ratchet's optics onlined. "Prime!"

Optimus turned, hearing the concern in the Medic's tone.

"What is it?" he asked softly, stepping towards the other mech.

"Autobot Mirage has just confirmed co-ordinates in what appears to be the Sahara Desert, here on Earth. He requires immediate medical attention." Ratchet replied, forwarding the transmission to the Prime. "I must depart immediately."

"Mirage? That stubborn glitch is still around?" Ironhide rumbled, coming up behind Ratchet. "I thought that he had perished long ago."

Bumblebee tilted his head to one side, letting out a quick series of chirps and clicks.

"You cannot come with us, Bumblebee." Ratchet shook his head. "You must stay behind with Samuel and Mikaela. There may still be a Decepticon or two lurking about, and they cannot defend themselves if the need arises."

"Wait." Lennox raised his hands, frowning. "You're leaving Bumblebee behind to defend these two..and he doesn't have legs."

"Correct, fleshling." Ratchet stated. "Although Bumblebee cannot transform, he is still capable of a great many things."

"We are also asking that you protect Bumblebee while we retrieve our comrade." Optimus rumbled, kneeling to get closer to Lennox's level. "It would mean a great deal to us if we know we have your support."

Lennox stared the Prime in the optics for a moment before sighing and looking at the two civilians and the crippled Autobot. With a rueful smile, he saluted. "You can count on my team and I, sir."

"Thank you, William Lennox." Optimus nodded before straightening. "Do what you must to keep our race safe while we are gone. Bumblebee, send us your co-ordinates when you are somewhere safe with Captain Lennox."

Bumblebee whirred something in reply, to which Ratchet and Ironhide shared a long suffering look at before smiles crossed their facial plates. Optimus chuckled, the sound comforting despite the frame that it came from.

"Yes, we will give any Decepticons a piece of your cannons." the Prime finally managed, straightening as he looked at his remaining forces. "Now, Autobots! Tranform and roll out!"

Without further orders, the three Autobots transformed down to their respective alt-modes before taking off, their engines roaring through the near empty air as they wove through the destruction that remained.

o-o-o-o

Mirage rocked back on his pedes, warnings flashing behind his optics that he needed to deal with before he was forced into recharge.

**Energon reserves: 39%**

**Left audial processor: damaged. Seek immediate medical assistance. **

**Equilibrium sensors: offline. Seek immediate medical assistance. **

**Right optic: damaged. Seek immediate medical assistance. **

**Offline pain receptors?**

**Recharge required. Override forced recharge?**

Venting, he confirmed the offlining of his pain receptors, feeling almost immediate relief from the pain that had been flashing through his processor. That done, he overrode the forced recharge signal before taking note of his energon reserves. He would need to find some, soon, if he wanted to keep out of reach of the forced recharge that was soon to come flashing back on.

But he was more focused on the Sparkling that was lying before him, balanced precariously on that edge of online and offline. Mirage knew that he would exhaust himself to the brink of stasis in order to keep this precious Sparkling's spark from going out.

He hadn't recieved a transmission back from anything that could be considered 'friendly'. Therefore, he refused to go into recharge for even a klik. If he did, he would end up in a medical stasis and would be unable to prevent himself or the Sparkling from being harmed should a Decepticon be around. That would be the most Primus damned thing he could do to himself.

He had managed to barely stabilize the tiny thing, barely able to complete some of the easy repairs that he knew Ratchet could repair in recharge. If he stayed online through this, he would have to get the cranky old Medic to teach him some of the simpler repairs so that he would be able to keep himself from offlining if need arose. And in this fragging war, he would need all the help he could get.

o-o-o-o

One thing that the Autobots hadn't quite thought through at the time was how the hell they were going to get from one continent to another without any means of transportation.

So, after a few hurried calls and a week of paperwork for several important members of the government to fill out, they were being shipped out from a base in Virginia, ten days after recieving the urgent transmission from their comrade. They would be arriving in one of several bases in Afghanistan, and from there, they would be on their own. For the most part, anyway. A few soldiers had been briefed and were to be shipped out with the three Autobots to get to Afghanistan, where they would then return back to America.

Throughout this tiring process, Ratchet continued to scan the signals for any signs of any other active Autobots and beginning to make the base for Bumblebee's new legs. After all, if Mirage had made it to Earth, who was to say that others hadn't, and had simply been unable to communicate with them?

Ironhide was simply restless. The sooner they found and retrieved Mirage, the sooner the Autobots could get back on their feet from Mission City. After all, Bumblebee was still without legs, and there were many more soldiers that needed to be mourned before there could be healing.

Optimus was busy during the entire thing. Between speaking with Lennox's team, (who they had come to know quite well through the battle) trying to pacify the higher ups in the military, and trying to keep their arrival to Earth quiet, the Prime was rarely seen in the span of time that it took for them to aquire the transportation to cross the ocean.

All in all, the three mechs were very wary and just a little curt when they were finally loaded up on the gigantic transportation craft that would be taking them to Afghanistan. Not that Lennox could blame them. He knew what it was like to be in a similar situation, as he'd been trapped behind enemy lines frequently and recently. Hopefully, once they came back, they would be much more easy to talk to. Ironhide had been developing a nasty twitch whenever a 'squishy' got too close to his feet.

o-o-o-o

**Medical Stasis pending: initiating shut-down sequence.**

Mirage cursed as the dreaded medical stasis alert popped up, flashing in a bold red as he felt himself beginning to shut down. Opening up the comm-link, he sent a final transmission through the Autobot signal, hoping that it would send before he was forced into medical stasis.

_**.: Autobot Mirage to Ratchet. Medical stasis taking effect. I have a Sparkling with me that needs immediate medical attention. Hurry. :.**_

Luckily, he'd sent the transmission when his systems began to offline, and before he could do anything else, felt himself fall into the forced stasis.

o-o-o-o

_**.: Autobot Mirage to Ratchet. Medical stasis taking effect. I have a Sparkling with me that needs immediate medical attention. Hurry. :.**_

Ratchet's brakes locked as the transmission filtered through his processor, causing Ironhide to swerve to avoid the SAR Hummer H2. With an angry honk of his horn, the Topkick pulled over just ahead of the Medic before sending a comm. to Optimus, who was a little farther behind them on the empty road that stretched as far as the eye could see.

_**,: Prime...I think Hatchet just **_**glitched**_**. :. **_Ironhide rumbled.

_**.: What? :. **_the other mech asked, sounding as though he were in slight shock. _**.: Why? :. **_

_**.: You tell me. :. **_Ironhide snorted as he backed up. His bumper was nearly touching the Hummer, and still, there was no reaction from the Medic.

_**.: Oh, the possibilities.. :. **_he vented as he nudged the Hummer. _**.: We have got to tell Bumblebee about this :.**_

Optimus chuckled, despite the fact that Ratchet was now begin to come back online. _**.: Yes, I believe we will. :. **_

_**.: Prime. Mirage sent another transmission. He has a Sparkling with him. :. **_the Medical Officer comm-linked. _**.: The situation has just become very serious. :. **_

He started up his engine again and began to pull forward again before he realized that the mighty Prime and Weapons Specialist had both glitched.

_**.: I believe I should leave you both behind. But I would regret it later. :. **_he vented as he muttered to himself, pausing to online the two mechs. _**.: Honestly. And you two call yourselves mighty. Bah! :. **_he scoffed.

Before long, the three were back on the road, their engines roaring as their speeds climbed to new heights. After all, there was no telling what could happen if they didn't get to Mirage soon.


	3. Chapter 3

**.**chapter three**.**

**-:-**

_I'm an angel with a shotgun,  
fighting til' the wars won,  
I don't care if heaven won't take me back_

**-:-**

The hot sand was worming its way through all of his workings, was his first thought as he onlined fuzzily.

Green and blue hovered somewhere in his vision as his optics managed to online, and he was aware of servos pulling at his chest plating. Instinctively, he onlined his battle protocols and had his wrist blades out faster than he thought he would be able to in his condition.

Garbled language filtered through his audials, but it wasn't making any sense to him.

"Slag it- Mirage, it's me, you infernal glitch-head!"

That voice was familiar. Hesitantly, he shuttered his optics for several long moments before studying his surroundings more carefully.

_"Le mie scuse, _Ratchet." he rasped, vocalizer sparking.

He heard a snort from somebot else, and the red mech shifted, seeing Ironhide and none other than Optimus Prime standing next to him.

But there was no sign of the Sparkling.

"Where is the _bambino?" _he asked, accidentally slipping into the language that he had picked up while in Italy, feeling his spark clench painfully.

"The sparkling is safe for now." Ratchet snapped, going back to pulling at his half melted chest plates. "But you need to open up your slagging chest plates so we can get to it!"

"_Cosa?" _

That didn't make much sense to him. He hadn't put the sparkling into his sparkling chamber, had he? He didn't recall having done so before he had been forced into stasis, which was blinking at him yet again.

**Recharge required: Override forced recharge?**

**Medical Stasis pending: Medic override suggested. **

**Override forced recharge?**

**Medical Stasis pending:**

"Mirage, don't you dare go back into stasis on me!" Ratchet snarled, cuffing the back of his helm as he hauled him into a sitting position, ignoring the whine of pain from Mirage's vocalizer as he did so.

Even though Ratchet was a medic, he also knew that with Mirage, he had to be fast and get the pain over with before his battle protocols took over and made him do something stupid that he would regret later.

"Ironhide, get your aft over here and hold him up. I'm going to have to cut away his chest plating to get to the sparkling."

**Medical Stasis pending: initiating shut-down sequence.**

Mirage felt his systems crashing rather than shutting down, and his vocalizer gave a final screech before he fell back into stasis.

o-o-o-o

"Slag!"

Ironhide, bracing the now offline mech, looked up at Ratchet with a question in his optics. Ratchet growled out another curse as he scanned the mech again, probing farther than he should have been in his concern for the state of his chassis.

"That mother-slagging slagger's going to be slagged when he slagging onlines." Ratchet hissed, subspacing his saw before quickly getting to work on the half melted metal that made up Mirage's chest plates. "Without knowing what damages he's sustained from landfalling, it's absolutely necessary that he _doesn't _offline!"

"Ratchet, I think that we all realize that Mirage is not at fault." Optimus added quietly. "He may have sustained damages that cause him to fall into stasis."

"Don't think that I don't know that, Prime!" the medic whirled, saw brandished in a rather dangerous manner. "At this point, the sparkling is depending on Mirage's spark beating, and if the moron offlines then the sparkling will too!"

"Ah."

Another glare, this one less severe, and the medic turned back to the difficult task of prying open Mirage's chest.

Despite the severity of the situation, the amount of curse words that Ratchet was throwing into the air _was _amusing. Ironhide was rolling his optics with the absurdity of some of the threats that also mingled with the curses, but was no doubt recording it all for a later date, probably as blackmail.

Finally, Ratchet paused in his sentence before gently prying the remaining part of the plate out of the way, revealing the sparkling within.

Ironhide's optics widened for a moment before narrowing in thought, and Optimus simply stared in awe at the tiny creation being held within Ratchet's servos.

Crooning softly to it, Ratchet began working on the most obvious issue: the doorwings. The tiny silver sparkling was leaking energon heavily from the mangled metal, and it was all that the three mechs could do not to cringe at the sudden keening that the poor little thing was making as the damaged sensors sparked under Ratchet's touch.

Soft blue optics onlined, barely able to stay online as it trembled under the pressure and pain that it was no doubt feeling, and Ratchet continued to croon softly to the tiny thing.

"I will have to put it in medical stasis until we can get back to base." Ratchet finally vented wearily. "Optimus, where is the nearest base that we can depart?"

"Afghanistan."

"Slag. Well, it's the best chance we have. Contact the others and tell them to get us back-up. That moron's not going anywhere unless he can transform back into his alt-mode or we manage to find something big enough to get him to the base."

Ironhide gently rested Mirage down against the sand again before collecting the bits and peices of his chest plating for later use. Besides, Ratchet would no doubt throw a fit if someone didn't and then they would get back to the others and it would all go to Pit.

Ratchet eased the sparkling into a more comfortable position before doing something with several wires that the mech knew would send the sparkling into medical stasis.

Then, they waited.

o-o-o-o

_It's dark. _

_Safe. _

_I feel the low thrumming of a spark next to me, comforting, warm. I'm in a sparkling chamber. Is it daniluk's? _

_My frame hurts. Why does it hurt? _

_Keening, I curl in on myself, moving as close as I can to the spark next to me. It glows warmer and brighter, but there is no answer to the emptiness where daniluk was. What happened to daniluk? _

_I see warnings popping up in front of my optics, but I don't know what any of them mean. Maybe if I go into recharge the warnings will go away. _

_I chirrup softly, hoping that daniluk will answer, before I tuck my doorwings closer to my frame. They hurt, and I remember that they have been for a while. _

_My optics search the sparkling chamber surrounding me. I can hear something, but I don't know what it is. My audials hurt too. _

_Everything starts shaking again, and I cower away from whatever is trying to get in. What's happening? _

_Light. _

_It hurts, and my optics shutter themselves. _

_Then there's servos lifting me, poking, prodding. I don't like it. I try to tell them to stop, but more pain attacks me. _

_Crooning, like daniluk. I move closer to it, hoping that it's daniluk. _

_I don't understand what's happening. I want it to stop. _

_Servos support me, and then everything goes black. _


End file.
